Although applicable to any system that uses relationships between objects to target information, the present invention will be described in combination with social networks or search engines.
Modern electronic systems like for example search engines or social networks are adapted to provide their users with detailed information about a term searched by said user or about the activities of other users.
Such modern electronic systems comprise databases with a virtually unlimited amount of information. Providing a user with all this information in an unfiltered fashion would confuse users and probably render the electronic systems useless for any user. Furthermore, providing information to user that is not related to any interest of said users would provoke the users to look for alternative sources of information.
In order to provide the user only with information that he is most likely interested in, such modern electronic systems are adapted to provide the user with information that is adapted for example based on the social relations of said user. Therefore, such modern electronic systems can comprise a database containing the social relations of a user. Such social relations could for example be defined as being a friend of another user, as being a follower of another user's publications or as being a fan of another user.
In order to provide a filtered or targeted selection of information to a specific user electronic systems select only that information for display to a user, which is generated by other users that are related (e.g. as friends or their common interest in the same topic) to said user.
Targeting information based on the social relations of a user provides limited targeting options. A user could be a friend of another user but not be interested in that other user's picture gallery. Thus, providing said user for example with the content generated by the other user would not give said user better targeted information.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and an apparatus for providing a better targeted information.